Candidate. The overarching goal of this K23 award is to provide Dr. Stacey Jolly, an Alaska Native academic general internist, with the training, research skills, experience, and professional development to establish an independent program of chronic kidney disease-related research. Her proposed training program consists of three core components: (1) community based and translational research principles;(2) qualitative methods and survey design;and, (3) methodology, implementation, and evaluation of prospective clinical trials. She has proposed formal coursework, tutorials, and practical experience for each of the components. She will learn about and incorporate community based and translational research principles. She will develop new analytic skills in the area of qualitative and mixed methods research. She will learn how to translate rich qualitative data into quantitative approaches, specifically survey development. She will learn how to create culturally and content appropriate chronic kidney disease educational materials in the form of computerized digital stories made by American Indians. She will test this inventive modality in a pilot interventional trial with the aim of increasing chronic kidney disease knowledge and awareness and chronic kidney disease protective behaviors among American Indians, as well as assessing feasibility acceptability, and effect size. At the completion, she will be well suited to obtain independent research funding. Her career will advance not only as a physician researcher but in academic medicine as well moving from the Assistant to Associate Professor level. Environment. The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, and its affiliate Case Western Reserve University are the major education and research facilities in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Jolly is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She will benefit from a rich, multidisciplinary mentorship and training environment, which includes experts in nephrology, qualitative methods, public health, epidemiology, biostatistics, and health disparities research. Dr. Ashwini Sehgal is a Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and Principal Investigator of the Case Center for Reducing Health Disparities will serve as Dr. Jolly's primary mentor. Dr. Spero Manson is a Professor of Medicine at University of Colorado Denver and Principal Investigator of the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health will serve as a co-mentor. Dr. Cheryl Killion is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University and qualitative methods expert will serve as a co-mentor. Dr. Jolly brings together a diverse mentorship team, consultants, and advisory committee members that offer extensive research experience, especially among American Indians, and support of her career development program. The site of her research project and data collection will be in South Dakota in which she will work closely with the Strong Heart Study Dakota Center run by Marcia O'Leary of Missouri Breaks Research Industries, Inc. The Strong Heart Study is a well established NIH/NHLBI funded study. Research Project. The goal of this project is to assess chronic kidney disease knowledge and awareness among American Indians in the Northern Plains who have metabolic syndrome. Prior work among the general population and some minority populations adversely affected by chronic kidney disease has shown low knowledge and awareness of the condition. To our knowledge, no study has examined in detail chronic kidney disease knowledge, awareness, and beliefs among American Indians. This study proposes to conduct a series of focus groups and create a chronic kidney disease knowledge and awareness survey. Few educational intervention clinical trials have been conducted among those at risk for or with early chronic kidney disease. To our knowledge none have used digital storytelling as a means to deliver the educational messaged and have been conducted among American Indians, a group with high prevalence of chronic kidney disease and end stage kidney disease. The aims of the research project are to: 1) Quantify levels of chronic kidney disease knowledge and awareness among American Indians with metabolic syndrome. 2) Determine the effectiveness of a culturally tailored health presentation with computerized digital stories made by American Indians compared to a conventional health video presentation only for improving chronic kidney disease knowledge and factors thought to be preventative of chronic kidney disease or its progression at baseline and follow-up in a pilot clinical intervention trial. In summary, with this K23 award, Dr. Jolly will be able to focus the majority of her time and effort on career development and research to acquire the advanced training and receive the critical mentorship needed.